Starship Jubilee still going strong entering Suwannee River

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Any talk about retiring the 7-year-old Starship Jubilee to the breeding shed this season has been put on hold for the time being – at least until the Grade 1 winner tries to add to her résumé in Saturday’s $150,000 Suwannee River at Gulfstream Park.

The Grade 3 Suwannee River for fillies and mares will be decided at 1 1/8 miles on turf and lured a field of seven that includes the Chad Brown-trained duo of Magic Star and Tapit Today.

Starship Jubilee is coming off a third straight victory in the Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf. The race turned out to be just a walk in the park for Starship Jubilee, the 2-5 favorite, who was able to lope on a slow pace before extending her advantage to 3 1/4 lengths at the end. The win was the 15th in 33 career starts for the Florida-bred Starship Jubilee and swelled her lifetime earnings to more than $1.26 million. Nine of those victories have come at Gulfstream Park.

“She came out of it great and she’s been training well in the interim,” trainer Kevin Attard said. “It was a pretty easy race for her, so it didn’t seem like it took much out of her. There was talk of her retiring, but you say to yourself, ‘How do you replace a horse like this? They don’t come by often.’ The owners know I have a pretty good grasp for her. She’s done right by us, so when the time comes when she doesn’t want to do it anymore, I’ll know and she will be retired.”

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Javier Castellano, who guided Starship Jubilee to victory in the Sunshine Millions, has elected to ride Tapit Today for Brown in the Suwannee River. As a result, Luis Saez gets the coveted mount aboard Starship Jubilee on Saturday.

Magic Star is an up-and-coming turf star in the Brown stable. A daughter of Scat Daddy, she became a graded stakes winner in just her third start, rallying to a half-length decision over the vastly more experienced Munchkin Money in the Grade 3 Marshua’s River here Jan. 11. Her 92 Beyer Speed Figure was a lifetime best and matched the number Starship Jubilee posted for her victory in the Sunshine Millions.

Tapit Today tries graded stakes company for the first time, exiting an easy 3 1/2-length optional-claiming win on Dec. 28 at Tampa Bay Downs in her first start in more than 16 months. The win was the third in six tries for the 5-year-old Tapit mare, who was second in the restricted Riskaverse at Saratoga in 2018.

Vow to Recover and Great Sister Diane are both stakes winners. Vow to Recover comes off a third-place finish behind Starship Jubilee in the Sunshine Millions. Great Sister Diane captured the Monroe Stakes here in September and most recently finished fifth after encountering traffic approaching the stretch in the Tropical Park Oaks.

Kelsey’s Cross and Smart Shot, eighth and fifth against Grade 3 opposition in their most recent appearance, round out the field.